Dear Friends, I smashed up the bumper area and hood of my blue 2005 Toyota Prius --although it is still drivable-- and am now looking into replacing those parts. I find that I apparently cannot order those parts from Toyota in the standard blue of my Prius and that the parts ordered will come unpainted. That means that the shop that does the repair will paint the parts to be installed. I had a 1986 Chevrolet Nova that a friend borrowed and damaged pretty much the same way. The shop where I had it repaired painted the parts replaced. The problem that arose in that instance was that, with the passage of time, the paint job gradually deteriorated and contrasted unpleasantly with the original paint job of the carhwell:. I would like to avoid that this time around. Any of you folks have a similar experience and possible advice? Regards to all from Jack Owens
Jack, Check with these folks: 04 and newer Prius Parts Cars They are a Prius-specific salvage and rebuild company in Indiana. :rockon: With luck, they may have the parts you need in the color you want. Shipping $$ :noidea:
Back in the late 80s I had to replace a fender on my 86 Hyundai. I painted it myself using all the proper techniques. It was a good color match. A few years later when I sold the car my painted fender still looked brand new, but the rest of the car had faded a bunch.
Your location would help. Search car-parts.com. There are also a couple of prius specific operations in cal, saw them doing a craigslist search.
You may have the reverse problem. It will be hard to match your 5 year old paint as it has faded quite a bit. You will be amazed at how faded your paint has become when you see the new paint next to it. And the new paint will not deteriate at the same speed as the rest of the car. I just had my front and rear bumper replaced and its near impossible to match the new paint on the bumper to a 2 or 3 year old paint job. My car has been garaged and the paint has still faded alot in 3 years. The bumper and hood may match pretty good but the fenders will be way off. The plastic bumper ages paint differently. I was thinking maybe paint the fenders too but you'll really see a difference then between the fender and door. It will be night and day.
